National Youth Orchestra
proms are usually great events; this one,
for a number of reasons, was a profound disappointment.
A large and appreciative crowd might have
thought otherwise, of course, given the copious
applause between movements and after, but
the fact remains the playing was torpid, stifled
and plain dull.

Roger Norrington, in one
of the most inept displays of conducting I
have seen for many years, must share much
of the responsibility for this. In both the
excerpts from Ma Vlast (so appallingly
done I have no desire to cause embarrassment
by writing about it) and Mahler’s First Symphony
an over-studied approach manifested itself
quickly. His conducting was extremely rigid
and tempi were excessively slow. At times,
the orchestra played on the beat, at other
times they played before it… rarely did it
seem that they played after the beat
which was what Norrington was aiming, though
perhaps not pressing, for. Norrington’s professed
preference for vibrato-less playing didn’t
always come off either: during the Mahler
some of the ‘cellos seemed all but invincible
to vibrato-less tone and one felt sorry for
the solo double-bass at the opening of the
third movement of Mahler’s First: such dry,
hard edged playing was nakedly unattractive
to the ear.

It’s hard to know what went
wrong with the orchestra, other than for the
fact that they played both works in a highly
academic manner, seemingly exercising laboriously
over the notes rather than simply enjoying
themselves. One wondered constantly whether any player understood the difference between
vibrato and portamento, or the minimisation of both in performance. This was
especially conspicuous during the symphony, as was a failure to distinguish
between vibrato and tremolo. Differences in pitch are noticeably different
from fluctuations in intensity and it was the latter which most detracted
from the power both works desperately needed.

There were few compensations,
but when they did happen they were mostly
on the surface rather than beneath it. Some
splendidly careful phrasing was evident in
the cough-spluttered, and therefore marred,
opening to the Mahler (indeed, it was quite
evocative after the sound adjustment) and
the off stage trumpets had a magical sense
of spaciousness. But where was the jauntiness
and the jovial brilliance of Mahler’s orchestration
– the clarinet that mimics the cuckoo, for
example, here simply a scratched bellowing?
Timing was a problem in the second movement
(Mahler wrote it in triple time) but rather
than stamping it the orchestra was content
to make it sound lumpen. The third movement
almost defied gravity – a dream that had become
slumber. The opening to the fourth – in what
should be a scream of despair, both furious
and grim (or as someone said later ‘like Moses
smashing the Ten Commandments’) – simply floundered.
It was if someone had turned the electricity
off. It was never turned back on.

The quality of the orchestral
playing isn’t really in dispute here – often
it was very fine, especially from the brass
– what is in dispute is the sheer failure
of the orchestra, and their conductor, to
generate any voltage whatsoever. The close
of Mahler’s First – that wondrous peroration
of brass – is one of the climactic moments
in symphonic music. It went for nothing in
this performance.

It was pointed out to me
how bored the orchestra looked during this
concert. Having the misfortune to play Mahler
under a conductor who has little rapport with
the composer it is hardly surprising. Heaven
forbid if there is any truth in the rumour
that Norrington is soon to start recording
him.

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